Aqueon Pro heater problems !

Hey I have been using the Aqueon Pro heaters for a few years now and I have been happy with them until the last couple of weeks. Last week I had one fail on my Goephagus tank, usually the temp is around 78 degrees but it shot up to 86 degrees . So today I'm getting ready to clean my Tropheus fry tank and the temp is down to 68 degrees and I keep it around 78.
I started using this brand a few years back when I stopped using Jaeger and Hydor heaters because of failures. Well here I go again, what brand shall I try now, even though I had all ready placed an order with two more of the Aqueons coming soon. I'm blown away that in 2013 they still have not figured out how to build a reliable aquarium heater that just WORKS.
 
I think it would be nice to have some type of consensus regarding heaters so we all know what brands are the most reliable ! We love our fish and they can also be expensive and it would be nice if we did not have to worry about this kind of ------

Still no foolproof heater that never fails. Most seem to have best results with the Eheim. I like the SERA with the heater guard.

You can never have 100% uptime on a heater. You can however hedge your bets. As for how can we not have a perfect heater yet? We do actually, the problem is we don't have one at the price the average consumer wants to pay.

I'd recommend the Cobalt Neo-therm heater [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Or a normal heater using a heater controller. It will not let the temp go higher than what you set it. It could still be too cold, but usually you have more time to catch getting too cold vs too hot.

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I also you the Aqueon Pro heaters when I am not using an inline heater. I have all of these heaters fail at different times. Some fail by going hot, some fail by going cold. That is why I like the big read digital thermometers that I can see every time I glance at my tanks. Even thought the Pro's have failed on me I still buy them. They give good constant heat when they are working correctly.

I actually have a heat controller on my main tank and that offers at least some peace of mind

Anyone considered using a PID controller for temp control? I use them for building DIY sous vide cookers. A kit with PID, ss relay, heat sink, and thermocouple runs about $40 on eBay. I just build a small wooden box to hold the components in place. You could then get a cheap heater and use the PID for precise temp control And by precise I mean +/- .5*C. Wouldn't prevent an open circuit failure, but if using cheap heaters a redundant heater on the same circuit could mitigate that.

Or, has anyone acknowledged that heaters might generally have a finite life of "x" years? You could just consider them a consumable and replace at regularly scheduled intervals for peace of mind.

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:
mmend the Cobalt Neo-therm heater [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Oh, I like! Would be a $200 investment to heat my 140 but I like the features of this heater.

Ive had 1 failure with eheim jager heater & that was from a used unit. All the other ones I have are 6 years old. Thinking about replacing them now before they start going out.

I wonder if over stressing these heaters have anything to do with longevity? Like with my larger tank I have extra large heaters. My thought process is if I work them less they will last longer & if one fails then the other will keep heat in the tank until i catch the failure. And i wonder if someone is working the crap out of their heaters it may lessen the life span?